The video “The Sparkle of My Life” opens with Kateryna Boiko singing a Ukrainian folk song. Then she starts speaking, also in Ukrainian with English subtitles, about being raised by her mother and her aunts and looking at the stars while sitting near a bonfire in her village.
Boiko, who left Ukraine to pursue an international career as a singer, was working on a cruise ship in February 2022 when she was awakened by her husband to let her know that Kyiv was being bombed.
Her mother and daughter were still in Ukraine, and she had to get them out.
The story of her family’s escape and resettlement is intermingled with her singing and photos of precious belongings, including her late father’s guitar, which her family had to leave behind in Ukraine.
Now living in Sewickley with her mother and daughter, Boiko describes sitting by a bonfire in the U.S. “I see the same sparkles as they were in my childhood.”
Boiko’s story is one of many being presented as part of “I Am Ukraine” on Jan. 28 at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill by Sharing Our Story.
The event will feature nine video stories, a performance by Boiko, and a conversation moderated by Rabbi Ron Symons, the founding director of the Center for Loving Kindness at the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh.
Sharing Our Story was started in 2015 by Sally Rafson of Squirrel Hill.
“My projects are really geared toward creating public awareness about the lives of refugees,” Rafson said.
Previous Sharing Our Story videos have told the stories of Meryi Gomez, who was forced by gangs to flee Colombia with her mother, and Khara Timsima who arrived in Pittsburgh after 17 years in a refugee camp in Nepal. He had fled to Nepal after the government of Myanmar labeled his family as “anti-nationals” after his father participated in a peaceful demonstration.
“People hear all of the issues that are happening in the world, but they hear it on a global level, but when you hear from a single person or a single family, it is much more meaningful,” Rafson said. “And on the other hand, it is so empowering for the refugees and the community members and the neighbors to tell their stories.”
In the spring of 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine and refugees started to arrive in Pittsburgh, Rafson turned to Jewish Family and Community Services of Pittsburgh to contact refugees and the City of Asylum as a fiscal sponsor. Then she began working with members of the Ukrainian community, both refugees and longtime residents, to tell their stories of the country they loved that was being invaded.
The stories being shared on Jan. 28 include that of Diana Denysenko of McCandless who fled Ukraine with her daughter, her son and the family dog when the invasion began.
Her daughter was not home at the time; she was at her university in Kharkiv, 19 miles from the Russian border. A family friend went there on business and found her.
“He found my daughter huddled in her pajamas in her dormitory basement. Coming back took 12 hours. His car was shot at; there was no glass left in it. My daughter couldn’t speak for three days; she just stayed in bed and slept,” Denysenko said in her video.
The bus they boarded as part of their flight away from the fighting was shot at by Russians despite the United Nations clearing the buses for refugees.
They ended up in McCandless, where Denysenko’s parents live. Her daughter is in college here studying business, her son is playing soccer and the dog saw its first deer.
The stories are heartbreaking as the tellers describe being thrown out of their everyday lives and into the new reality of being a refugee.
In her story “Ukrainian Special Treasure,” Olha Myroshnychento of Whitehall describes looking through her apartment as they were fleeing. Her young son was already dressed and standing by the door.
“I’m opening the drawer and seeing an unfinished knitted jacket,” she said. “My hand is reaching for it by itself. But no, I have no room for it. And if there is no electrical light, how will I possibly be able to knit? I’d better take this pearl bracelet – I could give it to the worst enemies as a bribe at the checkpoint – so that they can let me go. Oh, I should take the gold jewelry! Where is it?”
Here in her new home, she has knitted a new sweater with Ukrainian adornments. She is also painting and embroidering, carrying on the tradition of Ukrainian creativity.
Sharing Our Story will premiere the nine stories at the Jewish Community Center from 2 to 4 p.m., Jan. 28 in Levinson Hall at 5738 Forbes Ave. The program will repeat from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Feb. 3 at City of Asylum at 40 W. North Ave., North Side, and from 2 to 4 p.m. Feb. 10 at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Church at 1810 Sydney St., South Side.
The event also will feature a panel discussion, Ukrainian food tasting and a performance by the Kyiv Dance Ensemble. Admission is free but registration is requested online.